| Rank | Sport | Audience | Regions |
| 1 | Football (Soccer) | 4 Billion | Europe, Africa, Asia, America |
| 2 | Cricket | 2.5 Billion | Asia, Australia, UK |
| 3 | Basketball | 2.5 Billion | America, Oceania, Middle East |
| 4 | Field Hockey | 2.2 Billion | Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia |
| 5 | Tennis | 1 Billion | Europe, Asia, America |
| 6 | Volleyball | 900 Million | Europe, Australia, Asia, America |
| 7 | Table Tennis | 850 Million | Europe, Africa, Asia, America |
| 8 | Baseball | 500 Million | America, Japan |
| 9 | Rugby | 475 Million | Oceania, South Africa, England |
| 10 | Golf | 450 Million | America, Oceania, Europe |
Well since we were talking about it I decided to do some (limited) research. Some of the stats seemed outdated as basketball has really taken off these last few years so this table is only an approximation based on numbers I was able to find online. The popularity of Field Hockey blew my mind.
Cricket s not a global sport but a sport limited to countries that is ruled by Great Britain in the past i.e. there are 8 to 10 countries where cricket is major sports. It has audience of 2.2 billion mainly because it's the most popular sports in most populated countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Field hockey is played in more countries as compared to Cricket and that's why it's included in Olympics also. Only Pakistan has adopted it as national sports. There are hockey leagues played in India and may be few EU countries have hockey leagues also. But field hcokey s definatly not that popular to be at number 4.
My personal opinion is that more than ever, different sports are popular in different countries of the world like football is very popular in most of the countries and I think cricket is popular in Asian continent compared to European countries. I think field hockey is more or less popular in all countries. But not as popular as football or cricket. Field hockey has number 4 here, I think it would have been better to have number 7 instead of 4 to 6